I’m doing the Rosarito-Ensenada ride this weekend (they do it twice a year; I did it last September, too). My existing bike (a 1988 Bianchi Campione d’Italia, or something close to that) has treated me very well, but it is only a 12 speed, and the lowest ratio is 42:28, or 1.75 to 1 (and this on 700C wheels). I just don’t have the legs for that anymore (if I ever did).

So I went looking for a new bike. I thought I might be able to find one that would do everything well, but I decided that I would specialize a bit. For this trip, I bought a good sturdy road touring bike, a 2004 REI/Novara Randonee. Other than a bit of frustration when I tried to find racks anywhere else (they didn’t fit), it is a pretty nice ride. Taking a while to get used to the STI Tiagra shifters, though; I really want the small right lever to go to an easier gear, not a harder one.

And apparently all the new road bikes expect frame pumps to fit along the seat tube, not the top tube. What the hell? I want to use that area for a water bottle, thankyouverymuch! I’m experimenting with mounting one on the top of the top tube; its elastic barely fits, but it seems sturdy enough (although it cuts into the standover height a bit.)

Also added a rear rack, transferred my front bag mount from the old bike to the new, put water bottle cages on the new bike, and generally prepped it for real use. I had taken it on a short ride during lunch last week; tonight, I got set up for night riding to go drop off my taxes.

The main post office for San Diego is only about 4-5 miles away. I made the mistake of coming by that part of town on my way home (was looking for biking stuff) and it was insanely busy with traffic stupidity. Well, as of 23:30 last night, it was still destroyed. I’m very glad that I biked there.

There were at least two groups of protesters in front of the post office; the first were a pod of Bush-Cheney supporters... I gave them a big thumbs down. (Yeah, we need fewer rights, the draft reinstated, more tax breaks for the rich, and more taxes for the poor. Oh, and all non-Christians will be our slaves, and get those women out of the workforce and back into the kitchen...)

The next group was a freedom-to-marry pod. They got a big thumbs up.

The bike ride went well; I think I’m getting used to this beastie. We’ll see how I feel after 50+ miles, though.

Hyperbole

That's not true. [Slavery] is wrong and very immoral and it goes against Christianity's teachings.

I spoke sloppily. What I was really trying to express was that Christians seem to feel superior to everyone else; they feel driven to point out that superiority to everyone else (missionaries); and the current administration is doing its best to get its ideas of morality enshrined as the law of the land, because they feel that they are right and everyone else is wrong.

So what I should have said was: they want to treat everyone else as subhuman.

The very notion of taxing the poor heavily would be illogical as revenue from taxes would be very low.

Uh. There’s a lot more poor people than there are rich people. And there are more every day. And the powers that be — the rich people — are busy making sure that instead of having to pay one person full-time pay with benefits, they can just pay two people part time wages with no benefits! All that, and they try to reclassify McDonalds and Burger King as “manufacturing” jobs... so that sector can gain jobs this quarter.

*shrug*

Sadly, I really have basically given up. And I feel somewhat hypocritical for not selling all my possessions and giving the money to the poor and becoming a social crusader.

On the other hand, one of the reasons I don’t plan on ever having kids; I don’t like nor trust this world enough; it would not be fair to the children to bring them into this world, no matter how good or bad a parent I would be. I fully expect there’ll be a bloody revolution at some point, and I don’t want to be around for it.

Anyway. I phrased them poorly, but I feel that there are more than enough legitimate reasons to get Dick and Bush out of the White House this fall. Make of them what you will.